Mail-marking apparatus



. PATENT D 1 315. 6, 1904.

H. E. WAITE. I MAIL MARKING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 16, 1901.

2 BEBETS -SHEET 1.

H0 MODEL.

115. 752,1a2. f PATENTED $2313.16, 1904.

' H.151. WAITE..

MAI MARKING APPARATUS.

urmcumn rum) mm 15, 1901. I 30101121.. 2 sums-53mm.

FEELS UN ITED STATES I'ate'nted February 16, 1904.

.PATENT OFFICE.

* HEN Y a. warm, or NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS:

-liflAlL-MARKING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 752,132, dated February 16, 1904,

' Application filed July 1 ,1901, sum in. 68,285. on medal.)

Toall'whom it may concern:

. Be it known that LHENRY E. WAITE, of

ton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mail-Marking Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatus for stamp canceling and postmarking mail-matter in post-oifices; and its ob j out is to save time and labor on the part of the post-office attendants and to facilitate themarking of the mail 4 which is deposited by the public in the oflice.

- Much time and labor have-already been saved l by the introduction into postsofiicesof machines for automatically marking the letters in place of the method of. marking them by hand-stamps which formerly prevailed to the exclusion of other methods, such machines opcrating either by having the letters fed to them a by an .attendanhwho stands at a table bearing the unfaced letters and feeds the letters one byone properly faced into the machine, so

that each will receive the postmark of the outgoing oflice on the side bearing the stamp and the address, or by receiving into a feed-receptacle on the machine a stack of letters alread y faced, the machine taking the letters one by one automatically from the face of the stack and marking them. Both of these methods in- My present invention dispenses with a large part or the whole of the labor of attendance heretofore required for these'operations by the provision of means whereby t e public is' enabled to deposit letters directly in the mail-,- marking machines and have the letters prop-.

erly marked. p An embodiment of the invention is hereinafter described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in whicli Figure lrepresents a vertical sectional view.

of a mail-marking apparatus constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 reprer \sbnts an elevation of the apparatus looking from the inner or ofiice side of the partition shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 represents a horizontal section: on the line 3 of'Fig. 1. 'liig. 4 represents an enlargement of parts shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 5 represents a detail View showing the detachable operating-handle and I its shaft separated. r The same-reference characters indicate the same parts in all the figures.

. Referring to the drawings, 40 represents an inclosure, room, or oflice designed to be occupied by the postal attendants and from which the public is excluded by a wall or barrier 41'. On the outer side of .this barrier is a space 42, which may be a room devoted to the public or may be merely the space on the outside of the post-ofiice building. Thebarrier 41 is shown in the form of a partition extending from the floor &3 of the office 40 to the roof or ceiling 4A thereof, and including the walls of a pocket or recess 45. At the rear lower edge of said recess is a slot i6, designed for the deposit of letters by the public to be received and marked in the office 40 on the inside of said partition and constituting a mailing-channel extending through said partition. Below said slot are parallel walls 47 47, constituting a guide or chutethroligh which the letters fallina vervtical position upon an endless-belt carrier 7,

by which they are advanced edgewise in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 2. This carrier passes over idle pulleys 4848 and around, a pulley 49 on a driving-shaft 50, whereby the/belt is continuously driven. L Above the carrying-belt, at a .convenient'distance above the slot 46 in the direction of the advance of the letters, are located marking or imprinting devices, represented by the casings 51- 52 and the disks 25 25, on opposite sides. of the letter path for postmarking and stamp-canceling the letters: These markingv devices may be 'of-any desired character already known-in the art.

The marking devices are driven by two shafts 1-2, connected to each other by gears 3 4 and rotated by means of bevel-gears '53 5ifrom the driving-shaft 50. After the" letters have been marked they are carried by the belt 7 i and the impulse of the marking devicesinto engagement with a rotary stacker 55, which stacks the letters in a stacking-trouglrbfi. From the latter repository the letters have the machine is run by motor-power.

merely to be removed by'the post-oilice attendants and sent to their destinations. The stacker 55 is represented as driven by a belt 57, which passes around a pulley 58 on its shaft and a pulley 59 on the shaft 1.

The operating parts of the machine maybe driven in any suitable manner. In offices where the business is large in volume it .will generally be preferable to run the machine continuously. by means of a motor. I have shown arrangements for this purpose, consisting of an electric motor 60, having a pulley 61 on its shaft adapted to be connected, by means of a belt, with a pulley 62 on the shaft 50 of thewhen the crank is in place, as indicated in thedrawings.

Suitable directions as to the mannerin which to deposit a letter in order to have it properly marked will bedisplayed to the public,

- and even though these directions; be disregarded in some instances the proportionof letters properly marked will be sufficient to I greatly lighten the former labor of attendance in'post-oflices. Mismarked letters may be quickly sorted out and marked over againin a proper manner by the post-oflice attendants.

The inner wall of the recess is represented as-a swinging flap 64, hinged at 65 along'its upper edge and adapted to be moved by a cam-lever 66, so as to assume either one of two positions represented by full and'dotted lines, respectively,' in Fig. 4:. By this means the slot 46 may be opened either to the public side of the partition or to the oflice side. In the latter case the public will be excluded. It'will be seen that the path of the letter upon being deposited in the slot 46 is in a horizontal direction and parallel or longitudinal with respect to the partition 41. Such an arrangement avoids projecting the length of the machine out into the post-oflice in a direction transverse to the partition. i

In addition to the advantages above pointed out it should be particularly noted that the letter opening or chute is open either to the public or to the employees, Hence letters may be readily. inserted. In small ofiices where the quantity of mail is such as to make it unnecessary to use the power device the manually-operated device may be used, and

the movement thereof will carry the deposited letters out of alinement with the letter-opening or out of the path of movement of. the letter next deposited. This would be the case even if more than a single letter were de-' ted at the same time, the depositing of the letter not affecting themove'ment of the marking mechanism in any respect. In cities where the quantity of mail-matter is large and the power mechanism isused the conveyer will removethe letters deposited as rapidly as they pass through the letter-opening, thus permitting of a rapid feeding of letters to and Y through the letter-opening and to the conveyer and'without liability-of deranging the mechanism in any manner, and in this respect the feedingof more than a single letter at the same time will not affect the operation of the I ting the feeding of letters continuously, there being no obstructing means which would delay the feeding of the letters.

I I claim- :1

1. A mail-marking apparatus comprising an office having a wall or barrier provided with a normally unobstructed. letter-opening,

letter-advancing means Within the oflice for moving letters deposited through said opening out of "alinement with said opening, and means to mark the letters received from said letter-advancing means.

12. The combination of a wall orbarrier, a lettermarking machine on one side of said barrier,a letter-opening in said barrier out of alinement with the marking-machine,and

means for moving the letter from said opening to the marking-machine as it is deposited,

whereby the opening is maintained unobstructed for the passage of letters.

3. A mail-marking apparatus comprising an ofiice-having a wall or barrier provided with a letter-opening, mechanism within the office for marking letters deposited in said opening, said mechanism being out of alinement with said'letter-opening, and means accessible from the outer side ofsaid barrier and non-obstructive of said opening for operating said mechanism.

I 4, A mail-marking apparatus comprising an oflice having a wall or barrier provided with a letter-opening, mechanism within. the ofiice for marking letters deposited in said opening, said mechanism being out of alinement with said letter-opening, a motor for operating said mechanism, and means accessible from the outer side of said barrier for operating said mechanism, said means having provisionsfor detachment, from operative position. H

5. A mail-marking apparatus 00111111161112, an ethos having a wall or barrier provided with a letter-opening, mechanism within the office for marking the-letters deposited in said opening, said mechanism being out of alinement with said; letter-opening, and means con- IIO ' the office for marking letters deposited in said trollable from within the ofiice for obstructing or exposing said opening.

6. A mail-marking apparatus comprising an oifice having a Wall or barrier, a mailing-' chute accessible from both the outer andinner sides of said barrier, mechanism Within the ofliceiior marking letters deposited in saidchute, said mechanism being out of alinement with said chute, and means movable into or out of a position obstructing said chute from the outside.

l 7. A mailmarking apparatus Comprising an ofiice having a wall or barrier, a mailing.- ehuteaccessible from both the outer and in-' ner' sides of said barrier, mechanism within chute, said mechanism being out of alinement with said'chute, and a chute-controlling device or the other of the barrier.

movable into position to obstruct the chute ism' located onone side of said barrier, means for movingthe deposited letters to said mechanism, and means for varying the relative positions of said barrier and opening to permit of the opening receiving letters from one side In testimony v v'hereof I have affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses. HENRY E. WAITE.

Witnesses:

R. M. PIERSON, O; F. BROWN. 

